LONDON - Michael Phelps made more Olympic history Thursday, winning gold in the men's 200m individual medley to become the first man to win the same individual swimming event at three straight Games.

Phelps, denied trebles in London in the 400m medley and 200m butterfly, delivered a vintage performance to win in 1min 54.27sec and collect his 20th career Olympic medal -- and his 16th gold.

American Ryan Lochte, the world champion and world record-holder, took silver in 1:54.90 and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary earned bronze in 1:56.22.

Although it was his first individual gold of the 2012 Games, there was no fist-pumping celebration from Phelps but instead a smile of quiet satisfaction as his mother and sister cheered from the stands.

Phelps gave no quarter as he seized the lead on the opening butterfly leg, and stretched his advantage on the backstroke lap.

Never known for his breaststroke, Phelps maintained his advantage as Lochte battled in third place behind Brazilian Thiago Pereira with Cseh in fourth at the final turn.

After his disappointments of the week -- including a last-stroke loss in the 200m fly -- Phelps wasn't about to let another one slip away.

Lochte, swimming about half an hour after settling for bronze in his 200m backstroke title defence, poured it on with the fastest freestyle lap, but it just wasn't enough.

"I knew it would be tough for him having the backstroke final before. I wanted to kind of push the first 100 as much as I could just to see what happened," said Phelps, who called being the first to three-peat "something very special".

(AFP)